Candlelight Vigil Held for Slain Yellow Dogs Band Members

Candlelight Vigil Held for Slain Yellow Dogs Band Members
Friends and family of slain Yellow Dogs band members gather at a candlelight vigil outside Cameo Gallery on North Sixth Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Nov. 18, 2013. (Sarah Matheson/Epoch Times)
Sarah Matheson
11/19/2013
Updated:
7/18/2015

NEW YORK—Tears rolled as friends and family embraced at a silent candlelight memorial on Nov. 18 for three young musicians shot to death in a Williamsburg apartment a week earlier.

Some 100 mourners gathered on the sidewalk outside Cameo Gallery on North Sixth Street, the first venue that Iranian rock band Yellow Dogs performed at after arriving in the United States.

The two surviving band members and their friend who was shot in the arm during the triple-murder suicide all attended the memorial. The injured man, whose arm was still in a sling, politely declined an interview.

Shabnam Salehezadeh, the sister of the band’s manager wiped away tears as she greeted people at the vigil. She was reluctant to speak to media at the candle lighting, which she said was a private event.

“They were amazing, sweet, loveable,” she said, talking about the murdered Yellow Dogs band members Soroush and Arash Farazmand, and their friend, artist Ali Eskandarian. “You could take any of them home to your mom,” she said.

The candlelight vigil was held before a concert dedicated to the band at the Brooklyn Bowl—the last venue the band performed at in October. Proceeds from the concert will go to family of the murdered men, according to the Brooklyn Bowl website.

Sarah Matheson covers the business of luxury for Epoch Times. Sarah has worked for media organizations in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, and graduated with merit from the Aoraki Polytechnic School of Journalism in 2005. Sarah is almost fluent in Mandarin Chinese. Originally from New Zealand, she now lives next to the Highline in Manhattan's most up-and-coming neighborhood, West Chelsea.
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